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  • 2018-11-05 (xsd:date)
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  • Did a Billboard in Missouri Show President Trump Alongside a Gospel Quote? (en)
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  • In the final days before the November 2018 elections, social media users in Missouri began posting descriptions and photographs of a billboard that appeared to show President Donald Trump's face accompanied by an excerpt from a well-known Bible verse and a re-working of his 2016 presidential campaign slogan Make America Great Again: The images prompted expressions of concern by some Christians that the billboard was associating or likening President Trump to Jesus Christ himself, the Word made flesh referenced in the Gospel quotation. In its proper context, Chapter 1, Verse 14 of the Gospel of John reads: The billboard is real, and the photographs of it shared on social media in early November are authentic. The existence of the billboard was verified by St. Louis television station KMOV, which published their own photograph of it, describing the location as being on Interstate 170 near St. Charles Rock Road, which is around 15 miles north-west of downtown St. Louis, Missouri: This corroborates the description in Martha Baker's 3 November Facebook post, which stated that the billboard was located on I-170 (the Innerbelt in St. Louis) between the Rock Road and Page Blvd. Three days before Baker's post, another social media user posted their description of the billboard, expressing their dismay at what they called its idolatry: The billboard is undoubtedly real, though it is not yet clear who paid for it and when it was erected. A spokesperson for DDI Media, the St. Louis company which owns the billboard itself, told us they could not share such information. On 5 November, a Facebook page called Make the Gospel Great Again (which is no longer available on the social networking web site) claimed responsibility for the billboard: The page described its mission statement as follows: We believe God has given American Christians His earthly messenger - Donald J Trump. We follow his words in faith each day! As far back as 10 October, Make the Gospel Great Again posted an image which was almost identical to that ultimately displayed on the St. Louis billboard, and its profile photograph was the same logo which appeared on the billboard (a crucifix with an American flag): We sent a list of questions to an email address associated with the Make the Gospel Great Again Facebook page, in order to clarify who was behind it, and verify whether there was a link between it and the St. Louis billboard, but we did not receive any response. (en)
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